Whaling Woes

The whales are taking a huge blow these days. After almost plummeting into extinction, whale populations bounced back in part thanks to the international whaling moratorium. For 24 years this moratorium put a halt to commercial whaling. Although the moratorium was pivotal in increasing whale populations, it had loopholes. These loopholes allowed the capture and killing of whales for scientific research, which Japan fully utilized. So the killing of whales continued but to the moratorium’s credit, at a very decreased rate.

Nowadays, whale conservation is being attacked again. A proposal to reopen commercial whaling would be a huge setback for the conservation of our oceans. The attack on the moratorium is not only bad news for whales such as the humpback, fin, and minke, but will cause a number of other hardships on marine life in addition to the ones they are poised to face as a result of climate change.

One of the most outrageous parts of this story is Obama’s support of the proposal to open up commercial whaling. It will devastate the whales in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary in Antarctica and in the North Pacific and reward countries like Japan for killing countless whales. On the campaign trail, Obama said it was “unacceptable” to allow countries like Japan to continue to kill whales. He said, “As President, I will ensure the U.S. provides leadership…including strengthening the international moratorium on commercial whaling.” We need to make sure he keeps his promise.

For those that know the fragility of our oceans and the onslaught it receives everyday, it is important that we do not strip the moratorium away.

Take action at Greenpeace & the Center of Biological Diversity